Reviews

What Have We Done by Alex Finlay

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starfleeting's review against another edition

2.0

This is now 2 for 2 from Alex Finlay that I've predicted the "twist" before I was even at the midway point. With The Night Shift I figured it out about 30% in, and with this one it was in the first two pages. I read on, hoping I would be proven wrong but gave into my curiosity and read some spoiler reviews.

And man, I don't hate Finlay's writing from a technical standpoint, but the plot for this one sounded waaaayyyy too convoluted and stupid for me to continue. At least with The Night Shift it had some complex tragedy that made me at least skim the other chapters, still invested in the story.

So this is a DNF and solidly placing Finlay on my "check out from the library only" list.

edgarstarr's review against another edition

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1.0

DNF

"What Have We Done"? I don't know because I'm 42% in on page 156 and NOTHING has happened. Somehow, Alex Finlay went from writing one of my favorite thrillers of last year (The Night Shift) to writing a frustratingly messy story that's impossible to follow. The transitions from the past and present and never made clear, it'll take me a couple paragraphs to even realize what year the characters are in. Speaking of the characters, the one sentence summaries in the book description make them sound more interesting than they are but in truth none of it even matters. They are all nothing characters who somehow manage to be overly complicated. The only character who I somewhat cared about was Donnie, but I couldn't pull through to find out how his part of the story ended.

I gave "Every Last Fear" one star because I found the main character to be insufferable but at least I finished it. At least I was interested in what I was reading occasionally. At least I left it feeling SOMETHING. I'll be hesitant to read any future work by Finlay. I really don't understand how someone's writing can downgrade so much in the span of a year.

casuallyreadingx's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5⭐️- read as an audio!

A house of horrors for a group of kids with a crazy whirlwind of actions afterwards. I didn’t love it but I would pick up another book from the author

What I Enjoyed:
• Action packed! There was always something coming around the corner.
• Short chapters
• Fast paced
• “who dun it” (even tho it seemed quite obvious which meh)
• Honestly the characters were interesting and I was invested in all of them.

What could have been better?
• While I enjoyed most of the action, at times it felt randomly thrown in for suspense and I didn’t understand why. It wasn’t always needed. A bit overdone.
• Abrupt change between past and present made it hard to keep up
• While I enjoyed all the characters, I was hoping for more development as the story went on.

Overall: it was okay!

jodybecca's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

ajpotz's review against another edition

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2.75

it was an easy, action packed read, emphasis on the action. lots of fight scenes and such, which was not what i expected as this was discribed as a thriller. but would be good for anyone looking for an action book involving found family

Content Warnings

marieintheraw's review against another edition

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4.0

I am really enjoying Finlay's thrillers even if they have more action than my normal thrillers that I'd read. Something about his stories are very compelling to me.

I received an ecopy of this through Netgalley; however, all opinions are my own.